World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the second World of Warcraft expansion, officially announced on 3rd of August 2007 at BlizzCon. The majority of expansion content takes place in Northrend, and centers around the plans of the Lich King (Arthas/Ner'zhul). Highlights include the increase of the level cap to level 80, introduction of the Death Knight hero class, new Inscription profession, as well as new PvP and world PvP content. Northrend The expansion introduces a new continent on Azeroth - the harsh, icy Northrend is under the control of the Lich King, and is home to the majority of the expansion's new content. To alleviate some of the problems experienced at the launch of the Burning Crusade expansion, players will be able to choose where to enter the continent more freely - both Howling Fjord to the east and the Borean Tundra to the west feature level 68+ content, and it is planned that you can level all the way to 72 without visiting both. The continent is designed to allow players to level from level 68 to 80. Dalaran has been moved from its previous location, and will act as a neutral capital in Northrend (similar to Shattrath City in Outland). It is possible that the Mages of Dalaran had enough power to make the city afloat and move to Northrend, Mages are known to be very skilled at Transportation. The city will be suspended in the air north of the Dragonblight. Northrend is also home to several sentient races not previously featuring in WoW: * Taunka, a race related to the tauren * Vrykul, huge norse-inspired men * Tuskarr, walrus-like fishermen * Iron Dwarves * Nerubians New species are also being introduced, such as the: * Shovelhorn, and elephant-like beast Dungeons and end-game content The expansion adds group content in a similar fashion to the Burning Crusade - the 5, 10, 25 man as well as heroic dungeon formats will be preserved. *Utgarde Keep is the first dungeon introduced at BlizzCon; the dungeon is comprised of four wings, presumably arranged in a similar fashion to the Hellfire Citadel. The first wing of the dungeon was playable at BlizzCon. *Grizzlemaw will be a dungeon about furbolgs. *Azjol-Nerub will likely be dungeon, featuring an Old God and the Faceless Ones. *An Icecrown Glacier dungeon, culminating the expansion with a direct confrontation with the Lich King himself. *A dungeon featuring the ice trolls of Zul'Drak, although this was never mentioned at Blizzcon. *Riplash Ruins may be a dungeon like Coilfang. *A Titan-related dungeon, Ulduar, may be featured where secrets of Azeroth's history are revealed. *The Blue Dragonflight will likely have a dungeon, presumably the Nexus. The Red Dragonflight may help us in it. *Although never mentioned by Blizzard, based on the inclusion of The Red Dragonflight and Ulduar, Grim Batol and Uldum may also be dungeons. Death Knights World of Warcraft's first hero class, the Death Knight will be accessible to players after completing a high-level quest chain similar in style to the level 60 warlock epic mount chain. Once the quest requirement is satisfied, a player will be able to create a new Death Knight character, which would start at a yet-to-be-determined high level. The Death Knight is a plate-wearing dps/tank class (albeit one that is unable to use a shield) that uses a brand new resource system based primarily on cooldowns. Rather than the existing Mana/Rage/Energy mechanics, the Death Knight will be able to carve Runes into his weapon outside of combat, and then use those runes to power abilities. It is unknown at this point exactly what spells the Death Knight will have, however in the cinematic we catch a brief glimpse of one firing bolts of darkness into the air, which then strike the ground where, presumably, a corpse is, and raises a ghoul from the body. Blizzard on the official expansion site says "Master the necromantic powers of the Death Knight" and this spell or something like it will likely be available - one spell name mentioned during BlizzCon was "Army of the Dead". Inscription Inscription is a new profession that allows players to augment the power of their spells by increasing damage, reducing cooldowns or adding other effects - for example, adding a knockback to a fireball spell, as well as new kinds of items. Extending existing content The expansion will allow characters to level to level 80, adding 10 additional talent points to their disposal and extending the talent trees further to allow for 51-point talents. Professions will also be allowed to level to 450 skill points from the Burning Crusade's 375 skillcap. Players will also be able to customize their characters using new hairstyles and skin colors, as well as change hairstyles of existing characters. New dances are also being added. Flying mounts will also be usable in Northrend, but not until "level 75 or 78" as they want to "keep us grounded and guide us on foot". http://www.xfire.com/blog/blizzcon2007/14820/ Other features The expansion is also expected to update WoW's graphics - for example a new shading system is being coded for use in ice caves. System requirements have not yet been published. It is expected that more hero classes would be added through content patches. Galleria See also * World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King FAQ References External links Category:Wrath of the Lich King Wrath of the Lich King Wrath of the Lich King